How much sand is too much sand ?
- Thread starter tomelvis
- Start date
doodle1800
Active Member
In my opinion
[hr]
if you're not planning on a live sand bed (lsb), I recommend a thin layer of sand. Its easier to keep clean, in my experience. However, if you have fish like a rainsford goby, or a sand muncher, like a yellow headed goby, you may want a level that keeps him/her comfortable. You can keep an area of the tank that is deeper than the other for fish and inverts that like the sand, but I like a very thin layer, almost where at times the glass shows through. The reason is I found that a thick layer of sand, 2 or more inches, seems to require a good amount of stirring in order to prevent stagnant areas where cyno bacteria and other unwanted algae like to form. It might look nice in the beginning, but unless you have good circulation over and inverts keeping it stirred up, it will quickly get unsightly and require you to stir it up and keep it clean.
There will be others that will have different opinions on this, sometimes you just need to experiment to see what you like.
If you are doing a live sand bed, a natural filter when its done right, then research that in other areas on this web site. There are plenty of threads.....
[hr]
if you're not planning on a live sand bed (lsb), I recommend a thin layer of sand. Its easier to keep clean, in my experience. However, if you have fish like a rainsford goby, or a sand muncher, like a yellow headed goby, you may want a level that keeps him/her comfortable. You can keep an area of the tank that is deeper than the other for fish and inverts that like the sand, but I like a very thin layer, almost where at times the glass shows through. The reason is I found that a thick layer of sand, 2 or more inches, seems to require a good amount of stirring in order to prevent stagnant areas where cyno bacteria and other unwanted algae like to form. It might look nice in the beginning, but unless you have good circulation over and inverts keeping it stirred up, it will quickly get unsightly and require you to stir it up and keep it clean.
There will be others that will have different opinions on this, sometimes you just need to experiment to see what you like.
If you are doing a live sand bed, a natural filter when its done right, then research that in other areas on this web site. There are plenty of threads.....
doodle1800
Active Member
I just read your thread again - you're doing a dsb. I'm an idiot.
tomelvis
Member
Doodle ,
I dont think you are and idiot...lol... I had a 35 hex before and had about 3 inches of home depot sand covered with an inch of live sand. It seemed to work fantastic. My tank now is much larger 95 gal. and I was wondering if anyone had had the same success in a large tank as I had in my hex, because Id like to do the same thing again.
I dont think you are and idiot...lol... I had a 35 hex before and had about 3 inches of home depot sand covered with an inch of live sand. It seemed to work fantastic. My tank now is much larger 95 gal. and I was wondering if anyone had had the same success in a large tank as I had in my hex, because Id like to do the same thing again.
saltn00b
Active Member
yea here is the thing with sand beds that i have discovered:
either go with less than 1/2" light coating ,
or Research DSB's - Deep Sand Beds, and implement one of those. basically you will need have at least 3" of sand and a little more for larger tanks for it to be an effective Nitrate reducing DSB. probably 3.5" - 4". then you will have to decide if you will implement a plenum or not...im not the one to ask on that stuff.
i have a 150g and my sand was in the no-mans land area of about 2.75".... this took me a while to figure out that it was the cause of my nitrate problem because there was constant build up of anearobic bacteria bubbles. i even had over 115 sand sifting snails, a sand sifting star and a diamond goby, AND i manually stirred the sand bed gently before each water change, and i could never get my trates below 40. in fact just last night i finally vaccuumed out just about all the sand that i was looking to remove....
either go with less than 1/2" light coating ,
or Research DSB's - Deep Sand Beds, and implement one of those. basically you will need have at least 3" of sand and a little more for larger tanks for it to be an effective Nitrate reducing DSB. probably 3.5" - 4". then you will have to decide if you will implement a plenum or not...im not the one to ask on that stuff.
i have a 150g and my sand was in the no-mans land area of about 2.75".... this took me a while to figure out that it was the cause of my nitrate problem because there was constant build up of anearobic bacteria bubbles. i even had over 115 sand sifting snails, a sand sifting star and a diamond goby, AND i manually stirred the sand bed gently before each water change, and i could never get my trates below 40. in fact just last night i finally vaccuumed out just about all the sand that i was looking to remove....
doodle1800
Active Member
My first 55 gal had the home depot sand. It was too fine, messy, blew all over the place. I hated it. Maybe thats another reason I like thin... I actually have 1/2 and 1/2. I have a 90 gal with the left 1/2 sand, the right 1/2 crushed coral, a thin layer of both. I like it...
doodle1800
Active Member
Put it in to help the cycle. Also, with LS make sure you don't use chlorinated water when you fill it. If you use tap water, dechlorinate it before you put in the live sand. I know this sounds like a no brainer, but I bet a lot of people have done it.
drewdog82
Member
Originally Posted by saltn00b
yea here is the thing with sand beds that i have discovered:
either go with less than 1/2" light coating ,
or Research DSB's - Deep Sand Beds, and implement one of those. basically you will need have at least 3" of sand and a little more for larger tanks for it to be an effective Nitrate reducing DSB. probably 3.5" - 4". then you will have to decide if you will implement a plenum or not...im not the one to ask on that stuff.
i have a 150g and my sand was in the no-mans land area of about 2.75".... this took me a while to figure out that it was the cause of my nitrate problem because there was constant build up of anearobic bacteria bubbles. i even had over 115 sand sifting snails, a sand sifting star and a diamond goby, AND i manually stirred the sand bed gently before each water change, and i could never get my trates below 40. in fact just last night i finally vaccuumed out just about all the sand that i was looking to remove....
I was wondering if u had a fuge? I only have a 2" sand bed, but have read that as long as u have a DSB in a fuge u wont have a problem with a mid-range sand bed. You still need some sand stirrers, of course.
yea here is the thing with sand beds that i have discovered:
either go with less than 1/2" light coating ,
or Research DSB's - Deep Sand Beds, and implement one of those. basically you will need have at least 3" of sand and a little more for larger tanks for it to be an effective Nitrate reducing DSB. probably 3.5" - 4". then you will have to decide if you will implement a plenum or not...im not the one to ask on that stuff.
i have a 150g and my sand was in the no-mans land area of about 2.75".... this took me a while to figure out that it was the cause of my nitrate problem because there was constant build up of anearobic bacteria bubbles. i even had over 115 sand sifting snails, a sand sifting star and a diamond goby, AND i manually stirred the sand bed gently before each water change, and i could never get my trates below 40. in fact just last night i finally vaccuumed out just about all the sand that i was looking to remove....
I was wondering if u had a fuge? I only have a 2" sand bed, but have read that as long as u have a DSB in a fuge u wont have a problem with a mid-range sand bed. You still need some sand stirrers, of course.